In the field of machines for producing business forms, the use of high speed gluing machines is an important part of a process line. The process of impacting cross-web applied glue lines in the production of such business forms is a means for improving the quality of a collated form. The action of impacting the glue lines in producing such business forms also enables an increase in the running speed of the process line.
Impacting cylinders are commonly used to iron or squeeze glue lines between two adjacent paper parts. The impacting ensures that all areas of the glue lines between the adjacent paper parts or webs are squeezed together after partial drying and at a time when the glue is very tacky so as to permanently join the parts. The impacting also reduces the overall thickness of the joined parts by compressing the glue line so as to assure a minimum thickness of the glue lines and of the collated form. A minimum thickness of the business form is an important feature in the production of continuous mailer products.
The impacting process is accomplished by applying strips of rubber at spaced locations around the circumference of the impacting cylinder which is adjacent to and driven by an anvil cylinder. A distance of 8 to 15 feet between the glue applicator and the impacting cylinder allows a desirable wetting time for the glue to be absorbed into the paper and also allows partial drying of the applied glue lines to obtain the very tacky condition.
In present day operations, the rubber strips may be applied at a certain distance on the periphery of the cylinder for certain spacing of glue lines on the paper web, and the strips may be applied at a different distance for different spacing of glue lines. This procedure requires that the cylinder has to be removed from the process line and reformed to accommodate various distances of glue lines for different size business forms.
Various sizes of impacting cylinders have been used as a part of the collating process for a number of years. Servo-drive mechanisms have been used for numerous operations wherein a cylinder is positioned in a repetitive fashion to perform some useful function or operation.
It is also common knowledge that the rubber strips are used in conjunction with the impacting cylinders and that cross-perforating cylinders for producing perforations across the web and cutoff cylinders for providing a sheeted product are used on rotary collators by numerous machine builders. However, heretofore, a variable size rotary cylinder couple meant that if a change in circumference was required, one size of cylinder couple had to be removed and replaced with a different size cylinder couple. Thus, it is seen that the conventional method used to change to a different size is to change the cylinder couple. Normally, this change can be made in one of two ways. Using one method requires changing both the top and bottom cylinders of a couple which is constructed as a set. Another method used is to have a common bottom (anvil) cylinder and replace the top cylinder of the set in order to change the circumference size. In either of the above methods, the machine operator must remove and replace either all or a part of the cylinder couple in order to change to a different circumference. In either case, the top cylinder is commonly driven by the bottom (anvil) cylinder by mating gears.
Representative documentation in the field of rotary impact cylinders includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,823, issued to J. Bryer et al. on Jul. 3, 1979, which discloses a multiple product folder in a high speed rotary web printing machine having a plurality of operating cylinders and shiftable couplings for changing the speed of certain cylinders.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,814, issued to W. D. Schenk on Jun. 17, 1980, discloses apparatus for printing serial numbers with check digits independently applied by a single wheel on a rotating sleeve and the serial numbers being applied by a numbering head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,449, issued to H. B. Michalik on Apr. 19, 1983, discloses a variable size folder cylinder for a rotary printing machine wherein inner and outer support wheels are rotatable so that elements can be variably spaced about the periphery of the folder cylinder.